Gatlin was inspired to spoil Bolt’s party
BRITISH sprinter Reece Prescod believes the jeers inspired Justin Gatlin to glory in the World Championships.
American Gatlin ruined Usain Bolt’s farewell party to gatecrash the 100 metres final and claim the world title on Saturday night.
He ran 9.92 seconds as Bolt, in his last solo race before retirement, could only finish third in 9.95 seconds behind USA rookie Christian Coleman, but former Olympic champion Gatlin had been continuously booed during the heats, semi-final and final having previously served bans for drug violations.
But Prescod, who finished seventh in the final and was the only home athlete to qualify, insisted Gatlin was inadvertently aided by the London crowd.
He said: “People didn’t realise the booing helped him. He was loving playing the villain.
“Coleman has been running well, Gatlin just beat him in trials so was used to racing him. He crept in and took it.
“With the 100m you set off from the gun and that’s what he did and Bolt couldn’t reel him back.
“They (the IAAF) have allowed him to come back into the sport and he turned up on the big show.
“At the end of the day I’ve got to go and raise my game and get faster and come back again next year even better.
“I was focused on my lane but on the line everyone has 45 steps to win the race and Gatlin put his 45 steps in the right place. It’s how athletics works.”
Prescod ran 10.17 seconds in his first world final just two years after watching the Beijing World Championships on TV while he worked behind a bar in a golf club in Chigwell.
He is now looking to improve with next year’s World Indoors and European Championships on the agenda.
The 21-year-old said: “I was doing bar work for eight hours and then training the next day, it was a tough period, but it’s what I had to do.” PETR Cech hailed Arsenal’s squad strength after their FA Community Shield shoot-out victory over Chelsea at Wembley.
Gunners new boy Sead Kolasinac cancelled out Victor Moses’ earlier effort as the game finished 1-1 after 90 minutes, before Arsenal won the penalty shoot-out 4-1 under the new ABBA system.
Kolasinac had come on as a first-half substitute for the injured Per Mertesacker, while Arsenal were without the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey and Laurent Koscielny.
“We were missing a lot of players but it’s great to see that everybody is ready to compete for places in the squad for every game,” said Cech.
“Sead came in when Per got injured. He had a great game and everyone who came in as a sub helped us keep our quality on the pitch.
“The most pleasing thing for us is that we showed that we are ready to compete.” ■■Holland became women’s European champions for the first time with a thrilling 4-2 victory over Denmark on home soil.
Having swept aside Euro 2017 favourites England 3-0 in the semi-finals, Holland fought back from an early setback to send the sell-out Enschede crowd wild.
Vivianne Miedema (2), Lieke Martens and Sherida Spitse scored for the hosts, with Nadia Madim and Pernille Harder on target for Denmark in a first half which ended 2-2.